Children stabbed to death in the Cairns suburb of Manoora1:16

Police have surrounded a house in the Cairns suburb of Manoora where as many as eight children have been stabbed to death.

December 19th 2014

4 years ago

/display/couriermail.com.au/Web/CourierMail/CM QLD News and Photos/

THE father of a girl killed in the horrific Cairns massacre said she should have been celebrating her 14th birthday with the family today.

Instead, he and his wife are trying to come to terms with her brutal murder and find answers for why the violent crime was committed.

The couple broke down in tears when they learned that their teenage daughter had been murdered along with seven other children at her aunt’s house.

The other children were all siblings — three girls aged 12, 11 and two and four boys aged nine, eight, six and five, police said today.

Cairns Police Detective Inspector Bruno Asnicar said five fathers were distraught by the news of the deaths of their children, according to The Cairns Post.

Police are yet to release a cause of death as the autopsies are still being conducted. Those results are expected in the next few days.

Gone but not forgotten: Malili and Daniel (standing) sitting, L to R: Rayden, Petronella, Rodney. Child second from right is Cassius, a cousin and not among the deceased. The child on the far right is Azariah, who was also killed.

Distraught locals weep near the scene of the mass murder.Source:Getty Images

Families comforted each other near the house of horror.Source:News Corp Australia

Australia is grieving another horrible tragedy, just days before Christmas.Source:Getty Images

“I’ve lost a beautiful daughter,” said the father. “What for? What has she done?

“What happened?”

The man said everyone had seemed happy when he had dropped his daughter at the house a week ago.

Mersane Warria, the 37-year-old mother of the other children, who were aged between 18 months and 14 years old, has been arrested and is under police guard in hospital where she is being treated for stab wounds.

Det Insp Asnicar said charges had not been laid, but investigations were continuing.

“Every minute we have a better understanding of what went on in that house,” he said.

“She will be under police guard until this investigation is completed.”

A woman cries after laying flowers at the scene where eight children were found dead.Source:AFP

The children’s bodies were found at the home in Manoora by her 20-year-old son on Friday.

“(The son) told us that everyone is dead,” said the girl’s father. “I said, ‘how come you are telling me this?’

“And I was crying and (my wife) was crying, everybody was crying.”

He last saw his daughter the night before she died at a local McDonald’s where she was eating dinner with friends.

Neighbours Lucy and Lency Piva could not comprehend what had happened on their doorstep.Source:News Corp Australia